Obituary: musician Andy Tielman dies aged 75

Andy Tielman, the ‘Godfather of Indorock’ and member of the influential Tielman Brothers, has died in Indonesia at the age of 75. He was considered one of the pioneers of Dutch pop music.

By the time Indonesia gained formal independence from the Netherlands in 1949, the Tielman Brothers were already well-known. In the late 50s, as anti-Dutch sentiment grew in Indonesia, the band moved to the Netherlands to try to crack the European music scene, and are credited with recording the first Dutch popular rock songs.

The emergence of The Beatles was both a blessing and a curse for Tielman. The British band are widely seen to have been influenced by the Tielman Brothers, and undoubtedly took some of the fan attention away from the Dutch band. But Andy Tielman was increasingly struggling with fame, and in 1971 he left the band for four years. Later, the Tielman Brothers would play together on and off.